


Army of One

by Measured_Words



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Implied Eye Trauma, Implied Torture, Loyalty Kink, Medical Procedures, Offscreen Dismemberment, PG-13 is hard >.>, Power Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 01:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11749656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured_Words/pseuds/Measured_Words
Summary: Sendak has failed his emperor, and is prepared to face the consequences.  Haggar, however, doesn't want to see such a loyal underling wasted.





	Army of One

**Author's Note:**

> For the Galra mini exchange! Happy birthday (apparently) Superheroladies!

Sendak bowed his head before his emperor's displeasure. It did not matter what had happened, which ship the rebels had infiltrated, which of his lieutenants had hesitated. He had been the mission commander, and in Zarkon's eyes the failure was his. To offer feeble denials or grovel for mercy would show weakness, and Sendak despised this in himself above all others. No, he would suffer what punishment his emperor decreed. The loss of his arm in the ensuing conflict was trivial. His shoulder had been bandaged in the field, but that was several vargas past.  
It did help that despite Zarkon's displeasure and disappointment, the emperor seemed reluctant to provide sentencing, or simply to destroy Sendak where he stood as he might with a less favoured commander.

Finally, it was Haggar who spoke up, and Sendak could feel her piercing eyes assessing him. "Send him to the druids, my lord. I will ensure that he pays for his mistakes. If he endures the treatment, we will return him, a better and stronger weapon for you to command."

Sendak did not need to raise his head to feel his emperor's gaze fall upon him once more.

"Go with Haggar," was his only command.

Sendak clenched his fist and raised it to his shoulder in salute. "Yes Emperor. Vrepit sa." He rose, turning to where the witch pointed as two of her masked druids appeared to lead him to their chambers.

It was only as he laid on the platform they indicated and the druids began to remove the ruins of his armour that Sendak realized that Haggar herself had followed. Her hood obscured most of her features, and she said nothing until the others had finished the work of securing him in place. 

"Leave us," she commanded, and they did – disappearing as silently as they had arrived. Haggar approached, and Sendak turned his head to watch her as she made a circuit around him. His remaining limbs and torso were immobilized with energy cords, and his range of vision was limited. She stopped at his injured shoulder, drawing her fingers through the fur at the edges of the bandages.

"Commander Sendak," she said finally, "despite the failure of your mission, I know are a true servant of Zarkon." Haggar hadn't removed her hand as yet. He expected that at any moment she would tear free the wrapping on his shoulder, but instead her hand trailed up his chest, stroking him soothingly. "Your loyalty is commendable – I know you serve for the glory of the empire, and not for your own. Such loyalty, such potential should not be wasted. Zarkon needs commanders he can rely on. And I will make you more powerful, so that you will never disappoint him again." Her tone, which had been neutral, turned harsh, and she punctuated her words with a flash of dark energy which coursed through his chest.

As he had expected the attack, he managed to confine his cry to no more than a growl, and that as much anger as pain. "I don't fear your magics, witch, or your tortures. If you can rebuild me stronger, then do it."

Haggar smiled, a tightening of her thin lips. "Torture…." Now she did remove the bandage, long fingers probing at the crude cauterization performed in the field. Sendak thought it was as much to cause him further discomfort as to perform any real assessment, and set his face in a stoic glare. "No, commander. I will use you to test my latest experiment, and you will feel pain, and you will bear it, because you are strong. But it will cost you more than you have already lost – your nerves are too damaged at the termination."

Sendak growled again. "Take whatever you need." He knew it didn't matter – he'd been consigned to the druids and they would do what they liked.

"What I need?" Haggar scoffed, shifting so that she stood at his head. "You will not prove your devotion to Zarkon with such a meager sacrifice." Her white hair spilled out around her face an she leaned over him, running her hands up along his jaw and through the tufts of his ears. It was disconcerting, and he wasn't sure what she wanted. Why bargain when his life was already in her hands? But he knew what was in his heart, and if she wanted to hear that truth, so be it.

"I have given up my arm in service – I would give more, to advance the cause of the Empire. If that is what you are offering – then take what you will, witch."

"Very well, Commander Sendak." The thin smile spread across her lips once more. "I will not squander such loyalty and discipline. Those whose loyalty proves true must be cherished-" the black energy crackled along her fingers once more, and she reached for his face… "-even as their failings are punished and purged."

* * *

Sendak's memories of the procedure were scattered. At first he'd tried to keep from crying out, and then from losing consciousness as Haggar went about her work, but the quintessence she infused into his flesh to link his new arm overloaded all his systems. His shoulder still hurt, a deep burning ache that the druids indicated would recede as he became used to the new join. He felt a cold emptiness in his eye, where the metal was fused to the socket. It had been well worth it to let the witch take it – his arm was strong beyond measure, yes, and his perception enhanced to allow him to take the best advantage of that new strength. He followed Haggar into the throne room, and he could see how her heart raced with excitement. 

When he approached his emperor and knelt before him, he did so with his head held high.

"I present to you Commander Sendak," the witch proclaimed, "rebuilt, restored – a living weapon in the service of Emperor Zarkon and the great Galra Empire."

He needed no extraordinary senses to hear the pride and pleasure in her voice: he felt the same. Sendak bowed his head as Zarkon's eyes focused on him. His restoration to power, and to favour, placed him firmly in the witch's debt, but she shared his devotion to Zarkon, and he could live with that. A smile curled at his lips. "Vrepit Sa, my liege."


End file.
